Hand Me Downs
by KindOfAGirl
Summary: Paine just can't figure out what Yuna loves so much about that damn sword.


Paine's always been the one who watches, who notices people's reactions and expressions, and it's saved her hide a few times before. It's easier than usual with Yuna and Rikku – they don't know how not to wear their hearts on their sleeves. Rikku's asked her before if she can read their minds. No, Paine's not psychic – just perceptive.

Observing doesn't always mean understanding, though.

They were playing around with the garment grids a few days ago, getting used to the system before they have to use it in a fight. Rikku had gone first, laughing as she looked in the mirror and saw herself in the gunner sphere.

"Well, the color looks good on you, at least," Yuna said, looking somewhat critically at her cousin.

"Yeah, but it feels so awkward – it's like wearing someone else's clothes." Rikku pointed the gun at the mirror, miming shooting her reflection. "I like the hardware, though."

"They're more fun when you actually get to use them," Yuna laughed. "Alright, my turn. Paine, can I try the warrior one?"  
"Sure." Paine tossed her the sphere. "It'll be interesting to see you handle a sword, though." Yuna just laughed as she snapped the sphere into her grid and initiated the spherechange.

Paine hadn't seen anything too shocking about Yuna's version of the sphere. Slate-grey leather, lots of buckles, pretty standard, she had thought. But Rikku's eyes had fixed on the sword in her cousin's hand, and she had gone white. Again, Paine saw nothing too strange about the blade, except its color – bright sky blue – and a spike curving back from the tip. A little flashy, but not too out of the ordinary. So why did Rikku's eyes bug out like that?

Yuna's reaction had been just as puzzling. She took barely a second to look over her outfit before she'd seen the sword in her hands, and suddenly she looked like she was about to cry. She'd brought it up in front of her face, and ran her fingers along the metal, almost gently, and her expression was…odd. She looked like she was trying to keep her face blank, but her eyes were full of tears, and there was the hint of a sad little smile on her lips. She whispered something that Paine couldn't quite make out, and her expression had grown even more wistful. She'd stared at her reflection on the blade for a moment longer before looking over at the other girls, and gave them a wobbly little smile as she switched back to her gunner outfit.

Paine's noticed that Yuna spends almost as much time in that warrior sphere as she herself does, and that she holds her sword strangely, as if it's less a weapon and more a treasure…or something like that. She gets the strangest look on her face sometimes when she's wielding it, soft and loving and sad – it's a bit of a shock in the middle of a battle, to say the least. Paine just doesn't get it; even she's not that attached to her sword. After a battle but before they switch back into their favorite outfits, Paine asks her why she's become so attached to that outfit, that weapon. Yuna stops in her tracks, fingers tangling in the red tassel hanging off the hilt of that weird sword, and Rikku smiles understandingly and walks a little bit ahead. Yuna looks up at her, her expression frank.

"Rikku told you how she got me to join the Gullwings, right?" Paine nods – she knows the basic story, at least. Cute blonde guardian, fell head over heels for Yuna and vice-versa, ended up dying, or disappearing, or something like that at the end of the pilgrimage; and then Kimahri had given Rikku a sphere of someone looking like that guy, and Yuna had jumped out of Besaid like her feet were on fire the second she'd seen it. It sounded like some sort of bad movie, to be honest, but Paine doesn't say anything about that because from what she's seen, making Yuna angry is a very, very bad idea. The older girl sighs as she swings the sword up, catching the flat side with one hand. "This was his. One of his favorites, actually. And…" she shakes her head. "This is gonna sound so crazy, but you remember telling me that really good swords sometimes feel like they've got a consciousness of their own?"

"Yes." Paine's not exactly surprised that the sphere had grabbed something like that for Yuna, but a little curious as to why. As if this sort of thing had a "why" attached to it.

"I think the sword likes me. It feels good in my hand, you know? It handles well." She runs her hand down the blade, her fingers leaving lines in the bubbles that flowed just under the surface of the metal. "And sometimes it's like I can almost feel his hands on mine when I'm fighting… it's kind of comforting, really." Yuna smiles suddenly. "He'd probably laugh if he saw me flailing this thing around, though. All of my guardians seemed to have this deep-down belief that I couldn't fight my way out of a paper bag without aeons, or overpriced customizations courtesy of Rikku and her little shop of horrors in the bottom of her dad's airship. It's kind of nice to prove them wrong on that." She stops again, and switches back into her gunner sphere. "I guess I don't really need protecting anymore," she says with a wistful little smile. Paine smiles slightly.

"Not completely. We all still protect each other, but we're not standing in front of you like they did. We're standing back to back instead."


End file.
